PhotographyAnne-Marie Littenberg

December 22, 2015: Print! Yes, I said print those family holiday snapshots!

Please print your holiday snapshots of family and friends.

 

Joost at Christmas

Joost at Christmas, mid 1960s. From the wallpaper, I think this was the house on Parsons Boulevard in old Flushing, NY, New York City. I like to remember him in a rare moment of quiet ease.

 

If your snapshots aren’t printed, how will your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren find them in decades to come?

 

This is one of my husband’s forbears. Her parents were poor immigrants, living on the lower east side of New York City. It cost them a fortune they did not have to have this photograph taken. No one today knows her name.

 

Give future generations the pleasure of stumbling upon gems mounted in dusty albums, or stashed away in a shoe box in the closet.

 

Jan Jaap in a park in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, before my parents, he, and Joost emigrated.

 

In 2014, 1.8 billion photos a day were uploaded to the internet. But only a relatively miniscule number were printed.

 

I remember this day, circa 1961. We were in Warwick, New York. We swam in a river-fed pool, and my parents could push my beautiful sisters Yvonne and Yvette about on the plank walkways through the woods. Would I remember this day without this photograph?

I remember this day, circa 1961. We were in Warwick, New York. We swam in a river-fed pool, and my parents could push my beautiful sisters Yvonne and Yvette about on the plank walkways through the woods. Would I remember this day without this photograph?

 

Can you remember a day when someone would pull out the camera and people did not worry about being captured in a moment of blissful silliness?

 

Mom married our beloved Poppy when I was in my late teens. He was a rock of love and goodness.

Mom married our beloved Poppy when I was in my late teens. He was a rock of love and goodness.

 

Who cares if the photograph is technically “good” or not? (Answer: no one).

 

Joost and Howard, so cool in that mid 1970s, we're-trying-to-fight disco-even-though-we-are-unconsciously-embracing-it sort of way.

Joost and Howard, so cool in that mid 1970s we’re-trying-to-fight disco-even-though-we-are-unconsciously-embracing-it sort of way.

 

There was a day when family photos could be taken without a single person worrying out loud about whether or not they looked fat or good or if their hair was right.

 

Roland Barthes talked about "punctum" in photography ... that personally touching detail. For me, in this photo, it is Jacob's over-sized underpants. This picture never fails to put a knot in my throat.

Roland Barthes talked about “punctum” in photography … that personally touching detail. For me, in this photo, it is Jacob’s over-sized underpants.

 

Digital photography allows you to take too many to actually print.

 

Beautiful Mom. What was she thinking of here? I will have to ask to see if she remembers.

Beautiful Mom. What was she thinking of here? I will have to ask to see if she remembers.

 

Snap away to your heart’s content, and after the holidays are over, pick ten, or maybe just five, and print them up.

 

Desi and me in the backyard of the house on Main Street, Rosendale, New York. She was the first person I met in my second grade class. She came right up to my desk and introduced herself. How many second graders have that much poise?

 

And don’t forget to go check out the back of your closet and see what treasures your parents, great grandparents, and other forebears may have left behind.

 

Professor Ben, in the backyard on Utopia Parkway, Flushing, New York, circa 1960.

 

Over the years, we have lost many of the loved ones shown here. The photographs help keep memories close to my heart. Take photographs. Print photographs. Share photographs.

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